Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (named after the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge) was born in Croydon, England on August 15, 1875. Coleridge-Taylor studied with Charles Villiers Stanford, and at the suggestion of Edward Elgar, was commissioned to write a piece for a festival in 1898. The resulting “Ballade in A Minor” was a tremendous success. A subsequent trilogy written from 1898 to 1900 and based on the story of Hiawatha secured his fame for the remainder of his life. Read more about Coleridge-Taylor here. See instrumental parts for his compositions, and listen to a recording of his “Petite suite de concert” in African-American Band Music in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia.
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This is an important person in the field of classical music. I first heard of him around 1962 in school. My teacher played his Hiawatha suite for the class. I later went to the library to find out more, but at that time our library was limited in informatiom about him. His contribution is overlooked and downplayed.